I figured it was about time to summon the others. We all had a lot to talk about, after all. I explained the situation to Cesca and opened a [Gate] to the surface.
“A Garden, is it...? This could be a relic left behind by the ancient civilization of Partheno.” Leen was looking around, clearly overwhelmed by what she was seeing.
The ancient civilization of Partheno. It was a highly advanced culture responsible for creating various spells and magical implements, more specifically Artifacts.
This Hanging Garden of Babylon was a relic left behind by that civilization, and it was fair to call it an Artifact in itself. Going by that logic, Cesca might be considered an Artifact, too.
Everyone was walking around and exploring the place. Cesca told us that this Hanging Garden was the size of four Partheno Domes. That didn’t mean anything to me as I had no idea what a Partheno Dome was. I had no doubt it was very big, though.
There were areas much like botanical gardens, fountains, stepping stones, flower beds, ponds — anyone even casually into gardening would go crazy over the place.
As I stood there admiring the flora, I could easily tell what was on everyone’s minds. Julio would love to see this.
Leen, Cesca, and I were resting in one of the Garden’s corners, at a spot near a pool beneath something similar to a gazebo.
“So, you got what you wanted to find, Leen?”
“I’m actually unsure. I only hoped to discover some ancient magic, but we happened to find something far greater.” She wasn’t wrong. The whole of this Hanging Garden was one giant gathering of ancient magic. It had a garden that should never have survived five thousand years, but it somehow did. Then there were flowers that never withered, a barrier that made the whole of it invisible to outsiders, and so on... It was impossible for us to guess what kind of, and just how much, mysterious ancient magic was at work on this floating paradise.
Regina Babylon, the creator of this place, was a genius, no doubt about it. Though, it was kind of hard to ignore the fact that the good doctor was the type of person to force gynoids to walk around with exposed underwear.
“Cesca, is there anything more to this place besides the garden?”
“No. Nothing. Unlike the others, this Babylon facility is simply a wonderful personal garden floating through the sky. It has no treasure worth mentioning and no weapons to speak of. It is nothing more than a wonderful garden.”
“Hey now, this place is a treasure in itself.”
“That’s very kind of you to say. However, you are aware that this Hanging Garden of Babylon is already yours, right, Master?” Huh? What’s she saying now?
“The one that controls and manages this place is myself, yes? And I’m your property now, Master. That means my property is vicariously yours, understand?”
“...Are you serious?”
“Yes, I’m quite serious. You can consider it my dowry.”
Quite a big dowry, at that... Wait, what? I have no intention of marrying her! I’ve got enough on my plate with just one fiancee.
“Hey, Cesca. You’ve now piqued my curiosity. You said that unlike the others, this place is just a personal garden. What did you mean by that?” Leen looked at Cesca with keen, perceptive eyes.
Come to think of it, Cesca hasn’t been referring to gynoids in singular terms, either... Her phrasing kind of suggests that there’s more than just her.
“Babylon is split into several floating sections. Besides this Hanging Garden, there’s also the laboratory, the hangar, the library, among several others, all of which are managed by my sisters. Babylon becomes complete when all of them are joined together.” What...?
“So, you’re saying that the floating island of Babylon was created by your creator, Dr. Regina Babylon, some five thousand years ago. It then became separate and its parts are now floating all over the world, correct?”
“Indeed.” Leen confirmed the facts with Cesca. The scale of it all was a tad too large for me to wrap my head around.
Everyone who had been out in the garden gathered in the gazebo and intently listened to what Cesca had to say.
“If something like that was floating around out there, wouldn’t someone have noticed and made a huge fuss already?” Elze raised a fair point.
“Babylon is protected by a magic barrier that prevents outsiders from seeing it. Because of that, it is nearly impossible to view it from the surface.”
That seems about right... Dr. Babylon, the genius pervert of days long lost, must have used some kind of ancient magic to give Babylon the perfect stealth function. And the only way to discover it is by making it past the teleportation circle. A circle that would only work for those who had an affinity for all magic, just like the creator.
“So, how many floating islands are there?”
“Besides my garden, there is the library, laboratory, hangar, tower, rampart, workshop, alchemy lab, and storehouse. Nine in total, but I do not know if all of them still remain active.”
A whole nine?! Wait, considering they were all over the world, that number might actually be small. Plus, I’m pretty sure I remember hearing that the garden is the biggest of the individual pieces. Dr. Babylon was simply amazing... despite the perverted nature.
“I’m quite interested in this library you mentioned. It seems like something that’d be full of knowledge about ancient cultures.” Leen, sitting at my side, adopted a bold grin, but I wasn’t sure if I could relate to her in that regard.
The library belonged to that Dr. Babylon. I would not have been surprised if it was actually a gigantic porn collection. It was way too suspicious.
I thought similar things about the storehouse, actually. I really did not want to go there and find a bunch of erotic goods.
“I-Is it possible to contact the other floating islands?” Linze asked a question, fear and apprehension laced into her words.
Better work on that confidence, girl. You’re still no good at interacting with new people. Well, I guess calling Cesca a person doesn’t really count...
Either way, Linze had a point. If the other places were controlled and managed by others like Cesca, then the most efficient way to complete Babylon was to get in contact with them.
“Sadly, the links between me and my sisters are now inactive. Our barrier is set to the highest level, preventing any and all magical communication attempts. Unless Master orders it, the defense level can’t be lowered.”
“What does ‘link’ mean...? And what exactly do you mean by ‘Master,’ here?” Yumina tilted her head to the side. She wasn’t familiar with the word “link”? Guess Belfast hadn’t progressed enough in scientific fields to let them know about technical terms.
“A ‘link’ is basically a connection between multiple things. And when I say Master, I mean ‘my dearly beloved husband,’ of course.”
“Don’t tell her lies like that. Master in this case is more along the lines of ‘boss’ or ‘superior,’ Yumina.”
Does she actually equate master with husband? How self-serving. Despite being an artificial girl — no matter how partial — she’s too much of a jokester. I already know beyond a shadow of a doubt, that this too, is the fault of Dr. Regina Babylon. I didn’t really think about this before, but Regina is a girl’s name, isn’t it? Well, she’s definitely not the type of woman I’d like to have around...
“And why exactly are you this girl’s superior, hm?” Linze furrowed her eyebrows and pressed me for an explanation. Wait, why am I being interrogated?
“My dear administrator gazed upon my underwear, so I decided to dedicate my heart and body to him alone. That is why he is my master, the admin of my heart.”
“Hey! You left out several key details just now!” The air around us turned sour almost immediately. Everyone in the vicinity with the exception of Leen, Kohaku, Sango, and Kokuyou was glaring at me with cold eyes.
Slowly, Linze folded her arms and stood in front of me. She didn’t let me get up from my seat. Her eyes were emana
ting a light as cold as ice. Wh-Who’s this girl? What happened to the usual calm and docile Linze?
“...Touya.”
“Y-Yes?”
“On the ground, now.” Linze was mad beyond words. Her voice suddenly carried an immense weight, probably because she was always so calm and quiet most of the time. I stood up from the chair and sat on the ground. I didn’t want to risk making her any angrier.
“You’ve already seen all of us in our underwear, and yet you did it again with another girl? Do a girl’s panties really mean that much to you?!”
“That was just an accident back then. I just happened to walk in and see it all, and...”
“So you did it on purpose this time, then?”
Hey, there was just no way to defend myself from that exposure! She was the one showing them off to me! Why am I the one getting in trouble?!
“So you weren’t satisfied with seeing us in our swimsuits? I know you were looking at us a lot.”
“Well... That was, uh...”
“I did my best to choose a bikini that paired well with my sister’s, and that still wasn’t enough? So you’re the type to see a difference between swimwear and underwear, are you?” Sh-She’s being really scary! Linze was looking away at nothing in particular, mumbling something quickly to herself. Even the other girls were a little confused. Leen piped up, a malicious grin spread across her face.
“Hey, shall I show you my panties too? Seems to be the fashionable thing nowadays.”
“Sorry, but could you please shut up?!” Leen’s grin only grew wider. She was clearly enjoying the unfolding scene. No, but seriously... why am I being picked on? I didn’t do anything wrong!
“It looks like you don’t know why they’re mad at you.” Leen shocked me stiff. It was as though she had read my mind. Is she an esper?! Does she have some Null spell for that?! That’d be nice right about now! Gimme!
“Just leave it at that. If you want to press him further, you should make your relationship with him clear. At the very least, you have to be on the same level as Princess Yumina here.”
“...Yeah, okay.” Leen’s words made Linze nod and back off.
I don’t get it. They completely lost me. I looked over to see Elze with a wry smile on her face. She was patting Linze softly on the shoulder. I don’t get it, but... it’s over, right?
“Only the master, Touya, can give the order that will lower the level of the barrier. At a lower level, communication should be possible. However, his administrative powers do not extend beyond this garden. Unless something causes the other facilities to lower their own barriers, we will be unable to make contact, is that correct?”
“Exactly.” Leen and Cesca brought us back to the point of the situation.
I used my smartphone’s map to search for ‘Babylon,’ but didn’t get a single hit. Even the garden we were standing upon wasn’t marked. I took that to mean the barriers prevented my [Search] magic.
“You’ve been floating about for so long. Surely you’d have encountered any of the other pieces at least once.”
“Only twice. Once, three thousand and twenty eight years ago, and another nine hundred and eighty five years ago. The first time, it was the library, while the second encounter was with the storehouse.”
Good assumption, Yumina. But even so, that’s a lot of years separating encounters. It’s not like we can just sit around waiting for that to happen again...
“So, to find the other Babylon pieces, we have no choice but to search for the teleportation circles, then.” Leen heaved a long sigh. Wait, we’re actually doing it? I couldn’t help but feel a bit reluctant...
“Do you happen to know where the other teleportation circles are?”
“Negative. I do not even know the location of the one you used to get here. Where is the garden’s teleportation circle, anyway?”
“Beneath the sea, just off the coast of southern Eashen.”
“Eashen...? No such location exists in my database.”
That makes sense. Eashen probably wasn’t around five thousand years ago. Regardless, it was troubling that Cesca didn’t know the location of the other teleportation circles. That would make things considerably difficult. Hell, the first teleportation circle was deep underwater. It wouldn’t be unusual if the others hadn’t survived the five thousand years they had to have been around for. That being said, finding them would not be an impossible task if they were all housed within ruins like the first one.
“Why was Babylon separated, anyway? Spreading it out all over the world like this just makes getting it back together seem almost impossible...”
“I am unaware of the reasons Dr. Babylon had for separating the facilities. I never asked, after all.” I wondered if she had a particular reason for doing it. It could just as easily have been for a joke or something, after all.
Geez, my faith in Dr. Babylon is going down the more I think about her. It probably isn’t nice to assume that a person long gone was some sort of deviant...
“So, Touya. What are you gonna do with her?”
“Not sure how to answer that...” Elze’s question made me ponder. She’d been alone for five thousand years. That made her seem like quite a tragic character, but...
“What do you want to do, Cesca?”
“Well, I want to be with you, dear master. From dawn till dusk. From bathroom to the bedroom.”
Those words made me feel uneasy. I was tempted to leave and pretend none of that day’s events had happened. Oh shit, Linze is mumbling something again!
“Well... is it really okay for you to be separated from this garden? It can’t sustain itself without your management, right?”
“No need to worry about that. I instantly know if something happens to the garden, and I have the ability to teleport here at will. The garden sustains itself just fine in auto-mode, so there are no problems in that regard.”
Damn it. My escape route is well and truly closed. Seems I’ve no choice but to take her, now.
“With that in mind, I wish to register you as the garden’s master. I am already yours, but I must make your ownership of the garden official, as well.”
“Registration? What do I have to do?”
“Excuse me for a moment.” Cesca walked over to me before I had a chance to get out of my chair. She placed her hands on my cheeks and, as if it wasn’t a big deal, pushed her lips against mine.
“MmMpPh?!”
“AAAAAAHHHH!!!!” Four shrieks resounded around me. However, Cesca ignored them and continued to force her tongue into my mouth. Whuh? He— Huh?! WHAT? What is she— Explain?! Finally, she released my lips from the lock, which gave me a moment to process the fact that she had kissed me.
“Wh— Whuah?!” A strange sound escaped my mouth. But how else was I supposed to react? She had nonchalantly taken away my first kiss. She had stolen it from me, in fact.
The thief in question licked her lips as if tasting them and closed her eyes.
“Registration complete. I have consumed and recorded my master’s genetic information. Ownership of the garden will now be transferred to Mochizuki Touya.”
“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?!” Yumina closed in on Cesca. With her small hands raised high, she was making her anger extremely clear.
“Wh-Who in their right mind just k-k-kisses someone like that?! Even I didn’t get mine yet! I’ve yet to get mine, you know?!” Did she actually just say the same thing twice? Her face was beet red, and I couldn’t even tell if she was mad or flustered. Whatever the case, for some reason, I found it rather adorable.
“I believe this to be the most effective way to retrieve genetic information. I cannot bear children, but the alternative retrieval method would’ve taken more time all the same.”
“Ch-Children?!” Yumina’s face grew even redder. I didn’t know if it was just my imagination, but I swore that I could see some steam rising from her head. Suddenly, someone stood before me, blocking my view of the scene. I looked up to se
e Linze, glaring down at me with a stern expression. Her hands were on her hips.
Oh, things were sure looking grim for little old me. After all, I had enhanced senses that informed me of serious danger. I resigned myself to the fear and closed my eyes tight.
“Touya...”
“Y-Yes?!”
“I... love you.”
I’m sorry, WHAT? Her oh-so-sudden words made my eyes open wide, and when I looked up at her again, I saw that Linze’s face was as red as Yumina’s.
She quickly closed her eyes, gathered her determination, and hastily pushed her lips against mine.
It was a kiss, no doubt about it, but unlike Cesca’s, it was clumsy and forceful.
“Hgmgh?!”
“AAAAAHHHH!!!” A trio of shrieks echoed throughout the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
◇ ◇ ◇
Some time had passed since Linze’s confession. We were all flustered beyond words, so we took Cesca with us and returned home.
I quickly asked Laim to look after Cesca, hastily returned to my room, put my hands over my head, and dropped onto my bed. I was in a complete state of panic.
What kind of situation did I get myself into? Linze is in love with me? “Love,” as in... that kind of love? Oh man... Maybe I shouldn’t overthink it. Linze is cute, no doubt about that. She’s a graceful, calm girl. Always thinking of others. A bit shy, sure, but she more than makes up for it with how hard-working she is. She’s definitely the kind of girl many people would be proud to call their girlfriend... But I’m still engaged to Yumina. Yumina’s an adorable girl as well, and I can’t help but admire the composure and reliability she has at such a young age. Then again, I find it pretty endearing when she acts her age, too. Am I just moved by the gap between her normal personality and her youthful actions? Hm? Wait, is it really a gap if her actions fit her age? Oh man, how the hell do I deal with this...?
I buried my face into my pillow and sighed when I suddenly heard someone knock on my door.
“Touya, it’s me, Yumina...”
In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 3 Page 8